Friday, November 5, 2010

Who Was Richard Cain

Who Was Richard Cain?

John Delane Williams

Only a few of the JFK assassination stories ever mention Richard Cain. Cain was said to be Sam Giancana’s companion/bodyguard; Cain was also said to have helped the CIA with spying on Cuba prior to the Bay of Pigs fiasco. [1] Cain was born Richard Scully Cain to John Cain and Lydia Scully on October 4, 1931. [2] Events seem to obscure this simple fact. Perhaps, Richard Cain’s adding seven years to his age (so that the then 18 year old Cain could pursue a 25 year old sweetheart in the Virgin Islands, whom he married) led to this confusion. The seven extra years stayed with him through his life. People knew his mother married John Cain, but with Richard’s additional seven years, he was apparently born in 1924, six years before his parents married. Richard’s maternal grandfather, Olympio Scarlzitti, changed his name to Ole Scully (both to Americanize his name and to avoid creditors). He started the White Hand to counteract the Black Hand, a Sicilian group of gangsters (but not part of the Mafia). Scully was killed by members of the Black Hand in 1928. [3]

Cain joined the army at 16, and never finished high school. He moved to Miami with his wife (his Virgin Islands sweetheart) and her five year old daughter, where he joined a small private investigations firm, learning the arts of wiretapping and surveillance. He learned to speak Spanish (previously, he spoke Italian and English). While at the Miami firm, he would go to Cuba to monitor government activity for clients in the Miami area. [4]. He also tapped the phones of Cuban revolutionary leaders for Batista [5].

After a six-month stint in Bay City, Michigan, where he tried to establish a better relationship with his father, Cain moved back to Chicago where his first job was with the United Parcel Service (UPS) as a security officer. He would investigate credit card fraud for UPS for Sears. Sears was one of UPS’s bigger clients. Cain’s work brought him into contact with local police, and he started thinking about a career in police work. An old family friend, Sam Giancana, encouraged him to pursue a police career. Cain became a “made” member of the mob, known as “The Outfit” in Chicago. In the fall of 1955, Cain enrolled at the Keeler Institute of Polygraph to learn the use of the lie detector. Cain finished the six week course and became licensed as a polygraph operator. He applied for and was accepted into the ChicagoPoliceAcademy; he had changed his birth date to October 4, 1924, so he was apparently 31 years old. He was too short (5’7”) and his eyesight (20/200) was too poor, but enough money was spread in the right places to remove those technicalities. Giancana had plans for Cain to become his bagman (distributing money to willing officers). Cain was sworn in during May 1956. [6]

After a year of keeping his nose clean, Cain managed his way into the detective bureau. Giancana matched Cain’s salary of $9000 for his work with The Outfit, which included handling the bag money for willing policemen, and warning Giancana of raids on the Outfit’s enterprises. When not doing The Outfit’s bidding, Cain apparently was a good cop. Cain did like seeing his name or picture in the paper, so he would often take a reporter with him to many of the busts (of non-Outfit crime). In January 1960, Cain took a leave of absence from the Chicago PD, ostensibly to take a vacation. The “vacation” was working with IllinoisState’s Attorney Ben Adamowski, to spy on Mayor Richard Daley’s commissioner of investigations, Irwin Cohen. Cohen investigated Daley’s political rivals, and presumably did other bag jobs for Daley.Cain installed a camera across the hall in a transom to photograph everyone who entered Cohen’s office. Someone quickly spotted the camera, and the Chicago PD was called to investigate. Given Cain’s area of expertise, Cain immediately became a suspect. Following a four month investigation, Cain cut a deal to resign his position with the Chicago PD in exchange for avoiding prosecution. In what would seem a curious turn of events, Cain next took a job in Springfield, Missouri to assist in investigating police corruption there. Cain turned in a report in August 1960 that resulted in the firing of 13 officers, including the Chief of Police. Cain had earlier started a business in Chicago called Accurate Laboratories; their strong suits were wiretaps and polygraphs. This business became Cain’s focus upon returning to Chicago. One of Cain’s clients was Hugh Heffner and Playboy Enterprises, to make sure none of the Playboy bunnies had any extra-curricular contact with Playboy Club clients. [7].

Cain and the Cubans

Cain’s first contact with Cuban ex-patriots was in 1950-52 when he was learning the surveillance trade in Miami, and doing investigative work for Batista. The next instance of a significant nature occurred starting around January 15, 1959. A limousine stopped at Cain’s house and let off 6 men. For the next several weeks, they lived in his garage. One of the men would eat with Cain and his family; the man spoke only in Spanish, and only to Cain. Eventually, a limousine came by and picked up the six men. Over a decade later, Karla, then a teenager, asked Cain, “Daddy, do you remember when we had a house in Glenview? Some men came to our house and stayed in the garage for a time. One of them ate with us in the kitchen. Who was that man?” Cain replied, “Fulgencio Batista, the former president of Cuba.” [8]

It has been reported that Richard Cain recruited Spanish speaking toughs for commando training in Miami and Central America prior to the Bay of Pigs [9] Michael Cain, Richard’s younger brother, disputed this, suggesting that there was no evidence that this is true (that is, before the Bay of Pigs). [10] Information that became available since the publication of Michael Cain’s book changes his assessment. Batisita wasn’t just hiding out in Richard Cain’s garage, the two of them were planning a training program for Cuban nationals at the Glenview Naval Air Station North of Chicago, preparing for what would become the Bay of Pigs invasion. The station was operated with the consent and assistance of the CIA. There was training in small arms, hand to hand combat, and even training for a few fighter pilots. [11] Cain did become involved with Operation 40 (a project to eliminate Castro), but not by way of infiltrating the CIA operation with the Mafia, as was suggested by Kohn [12]. Richard Bissell, the CIA’s deputy director for plans, approached Sheffield Edwards, Director of Security for the CIA, regarding having the Mafia assassinate Castro. Edwards contacted Robert Maheu, who in turn contacted Johnny Rosselli. Roselli said his boss, Sam Giancana, needed to be involved. The CIA gave Giancana the contract; Giancana turned to Richard Cain. The plan was to use a botulism pill with Castro. In October, 1960, Cain began interviewing Cuban refugees and preparing reports for CIA station chief, William Lohmann, in Chicago. In late 1960, Cain entered Cuba with the botulism pills, getting as far as Castro’s office. [13] He had traveled with a Cuban woman. They could not find a suitable way to plant the pills so that they would be ingested by Castro. In exiting the grounds Cain narrowly escaped. His female partner was captured, quickly tried and executed. It was decided that this particular plan had to be discarded. [14] After the Bay of Pigs, Cain offered his services to Cubans in Miami and Chicago. On May 17, 1961 Cain became a bodyguard for Jose Ignacio Rasco, a Cuban refugee who had been a party leader for the Christian Democratic Party in Cuba. However, Cain saw the Cuban situation as drying up regarding opportunities for him. He saw himself as becoming an international free agent in espionage. He was asked to go to Panama and infiltrate youth groups and other groups to gauge their attitudes and identify communist recruitment efforts, but first he would go to Mexico to set up a base of operations. [15]

Mexico

Cain went about setting up his business in Mexico, and then went to Panama for six weeks; his work there would go unpaid, leaving just enough money to get back to Mexico. The Federal Police had set up space at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) for Cain to teach a 13 week course on the use of polygraph machines; it started in December, 1961. The university (UNAM) issued him an honorary doctorate in Police Science, at the instigation of the Mexico Secret Service. It seems Richard Cain had become a hit with various Mexican police agencies. Cain continued training Cuban ex-patriots in the use of weapons, helping prepare them for a second invasion against Castro. Cain began writing articles for police related magazines, and was appointed a technical advisor to the Policia Fiscal de Hacienda, which gave him an office there, along with police ID. He continued teaching classes at UNAM. He also starred in a documentary movie about scientific criminal investigation. Things went well until he beat a parking attendant, and then arrested him, using his Mexican police credentials. He was deported in June, 1962. But he apparently left behind several devoted students. [16]

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office

While in Mexico, Cain was plotting his next move—back to Chicago. He contacted Richard Ogilvie, whom Cain had met when Ogilvie was a young U.S. Attorney. Ogilvie was now running for Sheriff of Cook County, and Richard Cain had a deal for him. Ogilvie, as a Republican, would face long odds in a county that typically voted for Democrats. Cain promised to deliver the election to Ogilvie- for a price. Cain was to be appointed chief of a new Special Investigations Unit (SIU). The SIU was an anti-vice and anti-organized crime unit, which would give Ogilvie a platform to run for governor of Illinois. Ogilvie agreed to support Cain for Sheriff when Ogilvie’s term expired. Cain was honest about his mob ties; Cain intended to wrest control of the Outfit from the old timers. Cain was duly appointed SIU chief, and in two short years redefined police corruption. Cain arranged meetings with Sam Giancanna, Tony Accardo, and Joey Aiuppa, Chicago mob bosses. Cain explained to them the new rules they would have to play by. Only Aiuppa demurred; Aiuppa was kidnapped by Cain and two accomplices. They took Aiuppa to an abandoned farmhouse and stripped him and handcuffed him to a water pipe in the basement. After three days, Aiuppa capitulated. He was given a raincoat, a $100 bill, and dumped at a bus station in Danville, Illinois. Aiuppa, who was the boss in Cicero, was late with his tribute to Cain on more than one occasion. An SIU undercover team was dispatched to Cicero to gather evidence for a warrant; several nights later, Cain and several officers arrested several prostitutes and the club manager, only to be stopped by the Cicero police with guns drawn, demanding the prisoners be released. Cain returned the next night with 150 deputies, a handful of Illinois State Troopers, and a couple of reporters. Cain saw himself as the untouchable ruler. Not only did the police do what Cain told them to do, so also did the Outfit obey. Ogilvie did become governor. Cain was stopped in his march to become Sheriff when he was indicted for perjury in the Zahn Drug case. The drug company lost $250,000 worth of drugs in a burglary. In a raid of a motel led by Cain, $42,000 worth of drugs was recovered. It was determined that the raid was staged. In December, 1964, Cain was convicted regarding the Zahn Drug case; Cain was fired from the sheriff’s office upon the conviction. [17]

1965-1971; Chicago, Mexico and Prison

Sam Giancana was held in contempt for not answering questions to a Grand Jury in the spring of 1965. He was held in jail until the Grand Jury ended, which was late May 1966. Cain was in Texas; Giancana was driven to Texas by Butch Blasi, and Cain drove him to Mexico City; soon, they would move to a villa in Cuernavaca. Cain would take frequent trips to Chicago, where Blasi was taking care of Giancana’s interests. During one such trip, Cain met with Bill Roemer of the FBI, who tried unsuccessfully to recruit Cain to inform on the Chicago mob. [18]

Cain was indicted for misprision of a felony, aiding and abetting criminals, and obstruction of justice. The case involved a bank robbery; Cain’s alleged involvement was after the robbery, and amounted to having knowledge of a felony without reporting it to other officials. The robbery took place when Cain worked in the Cook County Sheriff’s Department, though the trial occurred three years later. There was virtually no evidence against Cain, but he was tried along with three co-defendants who were involved. All four were convicted. Cain was sentenced to two concurrent four-year terms and one con-current three year term, and fined $13,000.[19] Cain was released on parole on October 20, 1971. Just before his release, his third (or fourth) wife divorced him. [20]

Chicago, October, 1971 to April 1972

Because Cain was on parole, he had to remain in Illinois until April, 1972. Sam Giancana made arrangements so that Cain might make a living. He picked up the numbers game in the black areas of Chicago. Cain also initiated meetings with FBI agent Bill Roemer. Cain wanted to take up Roemer on being a “top-echelon informant”. The bureau granted authority to Roemer to pay Cain for his information, but they were unwilling to designate him a top-echelon informant. [21] Roemer [22] has also written about his meetings with Cain; these meeting took place in Cain’s apartment on Wednesday afternoons from 1 to 5 P.M.The black numbers racket withered; though Cain sought to move up in the Outfit, getting back with Giancana in Mexico became his next goal. [23]

Cuernavaca

After Cain’s parole expired on April 5, 1972, he spent a lot of time traveling between Chicago and Sam Giancana’s villa outside Cuernavaca. At times, Cain would fly, but he often would make the trip by automobile. Because of his failing eyesight, Cain needed someone else to drive. His driver was Michael Gilardi; Gilardi would also double as Cain’s bodyguard. Cain’s travels involved Giancana’s business interests. On at least one occasion, it included smuggling a box full of diamonds into the United States. Other times, drugs and other precious and semi-precious stones were brought in. Cain had at least six passports, one of which was legitimate. His legitimate passport and illegitimate passports would indicate a very busy man, including going to Bogata, Columbia, London, Athens and back to Columbia in a span of little more than a week. He would visit London, Luxembourg, Malta, Beirut, Columbia, and Greece, multiple times. Cain is said to have visited Switzerland, Italy, and Iran, though they don’t appear on his passport(s). He saw his youngest daughter by his first wife for the first time in Rome. The daughter had been told by her mother that her father had died.

Cain was also managing a brothel for Giancana in Spain. Cain often helped Giancana negotiate casino deals. The two of them opened a casino in Beruit, where Sam also owned a home. Apparently the brothel also served as a conduit for heroin destined for the United States. [24] Antoinette Giancana, Sam’s daughter, speculated that the demise of both Cain and her father related to their unwillingness to share their income from off-shore gambling with the mob. [25]

Cain maintained contact with FBI agent Bill Roemer. Cain explained that the Outfit in Chicago had gone through considerable change. Organized crime was no longer organized in Chicago. The Outfit still existed, but without a boss, and with freedom of movement for members. Additionally some sort of fallout occurred between Cain and Giancana (though this may have been a ruse of Cain’s). Cain would make his final trip to Chicago on December 2, 1973. [26]

Conversations in Cuernavaca

A former colleague of mine and her husband (who prefer to be unnamed) were living in Cuernavaca in 1970-72, after both had finished a stint in the Peace Corps. The husband worked with a partner running restaurants in Mexico. The couple was friendly with the ex-patriot community and had been invited on occasion to the home of Canta Gimble, the former wife of Baruch Gimble of Gimble’s of New York (the department store); Canta was said to be romantically involved with Sam Giancana; Gimble and Giancana maintained separate residences. At a luncheon at Canta’s home, the couple noticed a brooding man with dark hair and coke bottle eyeglasses in a corner who introduced himself as Dick Cain. Cain, Canta, and the couple were the only person’s at the luncheon. Without any prompting, Cain became animated in his disgust for President Kennedy regarding Kennedy’s failure to provide air support for the Bay of Pigs invasion. Cain felt he had been let down personally. It was the couple’s impression that Cain was part of the invasion force, and that he had personally recruited and trained many of the men who were killed or imprisoned in Cuba. The couple met with Cain twice, each time at Canta Gimble’s villa. Cain did promise that he would help the husband with any problems with the selling of the restaurants to a partner (making sure the payments would continue after the couple returned to the U.S.) There were no problems with the payments which were spread over two years. The couple never found out whether Cain talked to the husband’s partner.

A confidant of Cain’s in Cuernavaca, Ernie Purdy, had much more to say about Cain. Purdy was an ex-patriot from Australia living in Cuernavaca. Cain had entrusted Purdy with a manuscript which “told everything”, including Cain’s involvement in the JFK assassination. Purdy said he received postcards from around the globe from Cain as he traveled from place to place. Purdy said he destroyed the manuscript without looking at it, for fear that someone might think he knew what was in it. The couple has not heard from Purdy since leaving Mexico. [27, 28]

Cain and the JFK Assassination

Perhaps the most sensational reported relationship between Richard Cain and the JFK assassination is that Cain was the shooter from the sixth floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository; Cain was said to be shooting from the window that was attributed to Oswald. A shooter at the other end of the sixth floor was said to be Charles Nicoletti. [29] The same story is reported in Blakely & Billings, [30] Giancana et. al., and [31] Davies [32] also made the same assertions as the Giancana’s. A different take was offered by Furiati [33] who named the Chicago team as Cain, David Yaras, and Lenny Patrick; Furiati’s source was the Cuban State Security Department.

What is the likelihood that Cain was one of the shooters in DealeyPlaza? While it could be argued that Cain would have been a poor choice, due to his eyesight, there is an even better reason to reject him as a possible shooter in Dallas—at the time of the assassination, he was in Chicago.

Jim Malcotte, who worked for Richard Cain in the Cook County Sheriff’s Department, was testifying in a grand jury proceeding on November 22, 1963 when his testimony was interrupted by a sheriff’s deputy who came in the room and announced that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. Cain was sitting in the hallway waiting to testify after Malcotte had finished. [34]

A second story is more complex, and has a very different stream. An attempt was said to be made to falsification of information of an Oswald-Kostikov link; this part of the planning was done by a small part of the CIA that housed the CIA-Mafia plots. Mexican personnel trained in the previous year by Cain would have been in important positions to aid in the process of forging a link between Oswald and the KGB agent, Valeriy Kostikov, who was housed in the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City. It appears that the CIA station in Mexico City might be taking independent actions, together with their Mexican assets to embroil the CIA in a war with Cuba. The CIA Headquarters feared that this was the case, and when the CIA station in Mexico City requested the arrest of Sylvia Duran by the Mexican police, it was felt that she would be pressured to admit she was the link to the International Communists. At the same time, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Thomas Mann, was arguing that Cuba was involved in the assassination. Starting a war with Cuba was a strong interest of the Mafia and certain groups within the CIA. [35]

An obviously false Oswald was photographed at the Soviet Embassy and the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City during September, 1963. The person photographed and originally identified as Oswald has since been identified as Ralph Geb, a high school classmate and football teammate of another person implicated in the JFK assassination, Malcolm Wallace. Geb and Wallace graduated from high school the same year as Lee Harvey Oswald was born.[36] There were audio tapes made of the bogus Oswald at the Soviet Embassy.

Cain’s involvement

In a conversation between Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover on November 23, 1963:

LBJ: “Have you established any more about the visit to the Soviet embassy in Mexico in September?”

Hoover: “No, that’s one angle that’s very confusing, for this reason—we have up here the tape and the photograph of the man who was at the Soviet embassy, using Oswald’s name. The picture and the tape do not correspond to this man’s voice, nor to his appearance. In other words, it appears that there is a second person who was at the Soviet embassy down there.” [37]

The tapes that Hoover listened to were said by the CIA to have been routinely destroyed. The claim of having destroyed the tapes was made at the same time Hoover was reporting to President Johnson regarding Hoover’s copy of the tapes. [38]

Malcolm Wallace was a convicted murderer who was implicated in a number of murders, reputedly at the behest of Lyndon Johnson. [39, 40] Also, the one identified fingerprint on the sixth floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository was, in 1998, concluded to belong to Malcolm Wallace. [41, 42]

Cain’s relationship to this scenario is that he helped train the Mexican police from a variety of agencies when he was teaching his courses at Mexico CityUniversity; he may well have trained other personnel on an individual basis. In particular, personnel from the Mexican Direccion Federal de Seguridad (DFS) were involved in a program, LIENVOY, a collaborative effort between the CIA and the DFS to attempt to link a false Oswald to Kostikov; this false link was said to have been a major pretext to form the Warren Commision to reach a less dangerous conclusion of a lone assassin. [43]. Because President Johnson acted so quickly (he already knew about the false Oswald, from his conversation with J. Edgar Hoover on November 23, 1963), any direct involvement by Cain with the attempts to link Cuba and/or the Soviet Union in Mexico City would likely have been by accomplished by Cain remaining in or near Chicago. Otherwise, his involvement was related to his pre-assassination efforts. The conspiracy that Cain seems to be involved with was with trying to deflect the responsibility for the assassination to International Communism; Cain’s own preference would seem to have been to deflect the responsibility to Fidel Castro; the overthrow of Castro was seen by Organized Crime as the conduit for the mob’s re-entry to Havana. Cain felt Kennedy had personally let him (Cain) down with Kennedy’s failure to provide air support for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. [44]

The Death of Richard Cain

Richard Cain returned to Chicago on December 2, 1973. He would be on the earth only 18 more days, but they were busy days indeed. He fashioned himself as becoming the boss of the Outfit the old fashioned way, by killing all of the leaders. [45] The plan was for a New Year’s Eve coup; there was a hit team scheduled for Hawaii, where Sam Giancana spent most of his New Year’s Eves. [46] In those last 18 days, Cain acquired four new lady loves, who knew of each other, yet each was “in love” with Cain. [47]

On December 20th, Michael Gilardi picked up Cain to go to a luncheon meeting with Marshall Caifano at Rose’s Sandwich Shop, a small Italian cafe. Usually Gilardi would join Cain for lunch, but on this day, Gilardi claimed he had to go to his doctor. Cain and Caifano talked over lunch, and Caifano asked Cain to get something. Cain returned to Rose’s at 12:30 P.M. He was met by two men wearing ski masks; they held four customers, a waitress and the owner at gunpoint against the wall. Caifano had already left. Cain was ordered to stand against the back wall with his back to the kitchen. Cain faced the shooter; no words were exchanged. The shooter shot Cain with his double barreled shotgun, the buckshot went upwards to Cain’s chin, tearing away the right side of Cain’s face. Death was instantaneous. [48] When the Outfit discovered Cain’s plan, they had him murdered. [49]

Notes

Ashman, C. (1975). The CIA-Mafia link. New York: Manor Books.

Cain, M. J. (2007). The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain-Chicago Cop and Mafia Hitman. New York: Skyhorse Publishing; p. 17.

Cain, M.J. (2007).

Cain, M.J. (2007), pp. 24-25.

Hearing and Report of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. (1979) Washington: Government Printing Office.

I began the conversations with the colleague on Cain around 1985. Though I had read extensively on the JFK assassination for several years, it was a dozen more before I attempted to write anything on the assassination. I thank the former colleague and her husband for their cooperation.

Michael Cain has no knowledge of the manuscript entrusted to Purdy, nor knowledge of Purdy himself. Michael Cain does have a copy of a manuscript by his brother Richard on the Bay of Pigs invasion. e-mail from Michael Cain, 12/03/2008.

7 comments:

There's the mob(cf. "CHICAGO OUTFIT"). And then there's the REAL MOB(cf. Northwestern University and the Chicago people i.e. CIA/British MI-6: Their alter ego, the Jesuits). Belief my father knew Richard Cain and other associate(s) in fact involved with JFK/Bay of Pigs & CIA but kept quiet for fear of retaliation. He was a licensed physician in the state of Illinois.

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